1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vacuum cleaners and more particularly, to a self-walking vacuum cleaner, which provides a self-walking mode and a hand-held mode for option.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional self-walking vacuum cleaner generally comprises a dust suction mechanism mounted in a self-walking device (or self-walking robot). It can automatically walk and do a dust suction work during walking.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,882,201 discloses a floor-cleaning robot, which uses a roller brush assembly for sweeping dust particles. The roller brush assembly includes two roller brushes arranged in parallel. Relative rotation between these two roller brushes can drive dust particles out of the floor, enabling a vacuum device to suck in lifted dust particles into a storage bag.
However, conventional self-walking vacuum cleaners simply provide one single function, i.e., it can simply walk on the floor. If the user temporarily wishes to clean a particular local area, for example, tabletop, dust accumulated area or floor mat where a self-walking vacuum cleaner is not approachable, the user needs to use a hand-held vacuum cleaner or to employ other cleaning measures to remove dust. This practice is not very economical, but also a lot of trouble.